Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice is strongly in favour of the Super 8 system, saying the point of a championship is to "find out who are the best teams".
The two groups of four teams stage that will replace the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals from next year has been criticised for doing nothing to help weaker counties and reducing the chances of a surprise semi-finalist - in the vein of Tipperary this year.
However, Fitzmaurice, whose native county lead the all-time honour roll with 37 titles, believes its up to other counties to raise their game, as Leicester did to win the Premier League, rather than create a structure that levels the playing field.
"The Super 8 is a great idea because you are getting the top eight teams playing off against each other at the right time of the year," he told the Irish Examiner. "The home and away element is very attractive as well at that time of the year, plus the game in Croke Park. It's exciting, very exciting from that point of view."
"I know people will say Kerry has a (vested interest), but I don’t think a championship can cater for the weaker counties.
"Are Barcelona or Real Madrid in Spain worried about bringing Levante, or one of those teams, up to their level?"
"A championship is to find out who are the best teams, and if by late July or early August you don’t have the best teams standing, then there’s something wrong with the format.
“Every team gets two chances. I am not sure what more you could do unless there is a B Championship, which a lot of counties don’t seem to want. So that’s a flawed argument.
"If you look at other sports... are Barcelona or Real Madrid in Spain worried about bringing Levante, or one of those teams, up to their level? They are not. It's up to Levante to get up to the level.
"In England you have the top four and Leicester challenged that last year and got up there and won it. That was down to Leicester, not because Man Utd or Arsenal changed and said 'look we need to change to allow the weaker clubs to get up to our levels'."
Fitzmaurice, himself a former club hurler, says that he sympathises with fears that the small ball may be overshadowed by the extra football games in July and August however.
"I can see that argument from the hurling community's point of view that at that time of the year, football will almost take over but I think that the next step is that the hurling Championship needs to be reformed.
"I would have thought that it needed to be reformed anyway because the team that wins the Munster Championship or a Leinster Championship, sometimes they have six weeks until an All-Ireland semi-final, so they are coming in very under-cooked against a team who have had competitive games through the qualifiers and the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
"So I am sure that there are plans afoot to reform the hurling Championship as well to ensure that hurling gets equal exposure at that time of the year.
"Absolutely, I can see as it stands for the 2018 Championship how a hurling person would feel that they are being done out (of exposure) during the most important months of the year."
